The exemplary embodiment relates to the art of packaging and, more specifically, to packaged sheet media and a method of loading packaged sheet media into a printing system.
Loading of sheet media into a component of a printing system, such as a media supply tray, often presents the physical challenge of fitting the stack of sheet media into the tray. This challenge is further exacerbated when the users and/or operators of the printing system are disabled. For sheets of media to be correctly and consistently drawn into and fed along the media pathways of the printing system, it is desirable for the supply of sheet media to be captured within the tray or other supply component. This assists in maintaining a consistent orientation of the print media within the tray for uniform presentation of the sheets of media to the feeding mechanism. As such, the tray and/or component parts thereof are normally adjusted to closely fit around the sheet media stored therein. Unfortunately, this arrangement often makes the proper loading of a stack of sheet media into the tray a challenging task.
Due to the difficulties of loading an entire stack of media into the supply tray at one time, other techniques are attempted by users and/or operators of the printing system. For example, in one such technique a stack of sheet media is divided into smaller portions, which are then individually loaded into the supply tray. While these portions are usually somewhat more manageable to physically handle, the resulting load of sheet media will normally consist of multiple small portions that are often not uniformly stacked and may have considerable variability in orientation and/or presentation to the feeding mechanism. Moreover, manually removing smaller portions of sheet media from the package and placing them within the tray can lead to bent edges or damage to the sheets of paper. As a result, misfeeds, multifeeds and other conditions can occur and result in performance discontinuities.
In addition to misfeeds, multifeeds and other conditions that occur from the difficulties of loading sheet media into the media tray, valuable employee time is wasted. For example, traditional packages of sheet media are large cardboard boxes containing multiple, individually wrapped reams of sheet media (usually 500 sheets of sheet media per ream). In order to load a traditional package of sheet media into the supply tray, an employee must first open the exterior cardboard box, and thereafter unwrap and load the individual reams contained therein. Since media supply trays, namely high capacity feeders, include capacity for multiple reams, and perhaps multiple packages, of sheet media, loading the supply tray can take a significant amount of employee time. Similarly, other employees that rely upon a printing system must wait while the printing system is reloaded, thereby decreasing overall office productivity. Accordingly, it should be apparent that loading packages of sheet media wastes employee time and costs companies money.
Aside from issues of loading, traditional systems for packaging sheet media often produce a lot of waste, namely cardboard, that can present a significant cost of doing business in terms of landfill charges. Furthermore, in recent years, global warming has become increasingly more publicized and environmentally friendly technology has become more important. Traditional systems for packaging sheet media, however, have been slow to change with the times and still rely heavily upon cardboard, which generally has a higher carbon footprint than alternatives such as paper. Thus, systems for packaging sheet media that reduce the use of cardboard in favor of less carbon intensive alternatives present a more environmentally friendly packaging solution and reduce landfill charges.
The embodiments of packaged sheet media and method of using the same of the present disclosure are able to overcome these and other problems and disadvantages.